Grades

Enter Three Witches Booktalk

Mary had nothing. One day she was Lady Mary, foster daughter to Lord and Lady Macbeth, and engaged to the wonderful Asleif, who would one day own Gledstane Castle, and the beloved daughter of the rich and powerful Thane of Cawdor. Just hours later, she had nothing. During a fierce battle with the army of Norway, her father had betrayed the king, and afterwards, confessed to being a traitor, and was executed.

People who had respected her the day before, now looked at her with hatred. She sat still and quiet at the victory feast, waiting to see what her destiny would be. There were not many choices — all her wealth and property were gone. Her engagement was over. She was nothing now. But she was still young and beautiful and innocent — the celebrating soldiers eyed her lustfully. Now that she was their equal, she could be forced to marry any of them. That was, if the king didn't decide to execute her, or Lord and Lady Macbeth didn't decide to send her to a nunnery for the rest of her life. These were the only things left to her: death, a loveless marriage, or the life of a nun.

But Mary didn't know that the strange prediction by the three Weird Ones, witches who haunt the moor, was about to come true. Greed and deceit filled the castle, and as a result, her life was about to change again.

Double, double, toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble....

When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning or in rain?

When the hurly–burly's done, when the battle's lost and won....

All hail Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor,

All hail Macbeth, who shall be king hereafter.

Macbeth will do anything to gain the throne, but no good can come of witches' predictions, when they are misunderstood and misused.